Important Note:
These are NOT
lists of "IELTS vocabulary" words. Although you will increase your
vocabulary by using this material, some of the examples
in these lists are too advanced, too specialized or too rarely used to be useful as "an IELTS vocabulary".

On
the other hand, some of these examples are very idiomatic and it is good to
increase your knowledge of idiomatic vocabulary.

So,
overall, I suggest you spend some time practicing pronunciation with these
materials, knowing that you will be increasing your vocabulary and improving
your vocabulary at the same time. But don't think of these lists as "ideal"
or the most suitable lists to use as an IELTS vocabulary.

The purpose of the lists
on this page, and of all the other lists on this topic, is to give you many examples of the principles (原则) that underlie different
stress patterns (着重模式)when speaking different word combinations that form
a
two-word noun or an adjective + a noun.

The examples on this page are not complete lists but just short lists of a few examples
which have recordings available on the internet. The other pages, listed
under the different "Types" have longer lists and many of the
examples in the longer lists don't have links to audio files.

The idea is to try to learn some general rules for how to
pronounce different combinations of noun + noun and adjective +
noun. That is, how to speak the correct intonation. Or, in other words,
to learn which word is stressed more strongly, the first or the second word.

Although the vast majority of Type 1 are noun + noun,
sometimes the first word is an adjective. To understand this topic, the best
idea is to imagine that that all Type 1 examples
belong to a "set" of similar compound nouns. For example, "apple juice"
belongs to "the set of juices". The first word, in this example, "apple"
represents the particular type or the particular member of the
set. Similarly, the set of words, "X + school" is the set of different types of
school. A "high school" is one member of this set, just as "a music
school" and "a language school" are. However, in reality,
there is a small number of Type 1 examples that form a set of one, i.e., they
are the only member of the set.

social studies (The first word is stressed to mean, "a kind
of studies".)

These usually consist of two words joined together.
They are quite common.

This type is quite common but they are also often idiomatic in meaning.
Notice that the phrasal verb has the stress on the seond word but the noun that
comes from the phrasal verb has the stress on the first word.

There
are two varieties: a) the verb is put first, keeping the same order as the
phrasal verb. For example, to
throw
away --> a
throwaway (= a thing that is thrown away); b) The order of the words
in phrasal verb is reversed. For example: to
comein --> an income; to take leave (no recording yet) -->
leave-taking.

When you listen to these examples, it might seem that sometimes the speaker
says the adjective a little louder than the noun. But there is a 'falling tone'
on the second word, the noun, that is spoken with an emphasis and clarity that
shows that the noun is the more important of the two words – the adjective
describes that noun, i.e., gives more information about it but the noun is the
key word. Listen to these two examples: "an old
man"and an "old woman".
The stress on the second word here is not as strong as and not the same as the
stress on the first word for Type 1 compound nouns such as, "an
apple tree" and "decision
making".

Many of the examples shown here are set, common expressions that can be found in
the dictionary. But the same stress pattern is used for any
adjective + noun
combination that you might form, such as, "a big dog", "a good
student" and, "a pretty
girl".

For Type 1, it is best to think of each example as
a type of something. For
example, "apple tree" and "Christmas tree" both are types of tree and they both
belong to a group called, "Trees". However, for the Type 2 stress pattern, it is best to think of each example as belonging to
the same adjective. For example, "an old man", "old age", "an old dog", "an old
book" all belong to the group called, "Old Things".

These are a variety of Type 1, except that the first word is an adjective.
For example, a supermarket is a type of market, not a description of a market
as "super". A description of a market as "super" would fit into Type 2,
adjective + noun (never joined).

The stress is on the first word,
the adjective. For example, it sounds ridiculous to pronounce "a
deadline" the same
way as you would pronounce "a dead dog" because a line is never
alive! [A "dead
end"has the same intonation as
"a dead dog" but a "dead end" is just
an idiomatic expression - an end never has life, either.]

Note! Many English learners make mistakes with these.

Looking at these and Type 1, leads to a general rule: "Whenever a word
that represents a noun is composed of two words that are joined in writing, the first word is spoken
with stronger stress than the second word." This is true even if neither
of the two words is a noun, such as, "income". (However,
even general rules have a few exceptions!)

This is actually a variety of 4b. For example,
Christmas Evemeans "the evening of Christmas",
which is the evening before Christmas Day. Other common examples
are: "morning tea", "my morning exercises" and "an
afternoon nap"

4d: The thing represented by the compound noun is both the first noun
and the second noun, at the same time.

For example, "a toy rabbit" is a rabbit (but not a real one) and is also a
toy. Also, the first noun is used to represent an adjective. For example: "a toy
gun", where the noun, "toy" represents the adjectival ideas
of, "not real" and "an amusing thing, for
play"; and "a model plane", where the noun, "model"
represents the adjectival ideas of, "not real" or
"a small copy" or "exemplary" as in, "a model worker".

Type 2 shows that in a typical adjective + noun combination,
the noun is usually stressed more than the adjective. Normally, we do not refer
to or think about what something is not when we use an adjective – the
adjective is just used to describe the noun. That is, normally we don't think
that something is not the opposite adjective. For example: "He bought a
new car yesterday." In that statement, we normally stress the word, "car"
because that is the key word, the key idea. Everybody knows that "new" means
"not old" but in that statement, the speaker is just using the word "new" to
describe the car, to add a bit of information about the car. The speaker is not
focused on the idea that the car is not old.

However, sometimes an adjective is spoken
with more stress than the noun. In this case, the meaning is that the adjective
is not "something else", (where this "something else"
is usually the opposite adjective, such as "young/old", "big/little",
"good/bad" etc.). This is a situation of contrasting two adjectives. You
can usually choose to do that with any adjective + noun combination.

---------------------------------

Here is an example of someone changing the usual
stress pattern in order to express a contrast. Two people are talking. One
is a Russian and the other is a Frenchman.

Russian: "My father used to be a diplomat
in the former
Soviet Union." (苏联)

Frenchman: "What a co-incidence! My
father is a diplomat in the European Union".

Normally, "European Union" is spoken as
European
Union. But the Frenchman chooses to put extra stress on the
word, "European" in this conversation in order to contrast it with the Soviet
Union. (Both the words "European" and "Soviet" are adjectives.)

Here, the contrast is implied (暗示的, 含蓄的)
because the speaker does not actually say the words, "little boy" or "little
boys".

Here's another example: "He's a
bad guy." Here, the speaker means, "He's certainly not a
good guy"
but he does not actually say the words "good guy". (The recording of, 'good guy' also has an
implied contrast stress pattern.) "Old guy" and "young
guy" are similar.

---------------------------------

In addition to making your own contrasting
adjectives to express contrast when you want to, English also has some adjective + noun combinations that are
always (or usually) spoken with an
implied contrast stress on the adjective. This is because those word
combinations always or (usually) include the idea of focusing on what the thing or person is not.
In other words, the standard way to say these is with the stress on the first
word, the adjective. Some of these are listed below.

You can also think of these as
a variety of Type 1, (composed of adjective + noun instead of the usual
noun + noun) where the adjective does not describe but, instead, tells us which type
of noun.

One example of this is
young people. In this recording, the stress on the word, "young" implies, "not old" or "not
middle-aged". Compare that with the usual use of the adjective "young" in this
example: a
young man. In the second recording, the word, "young" is simply used to describe the
man, not to imply that he is "not an old man". Along with "young
people" we have,
old folk.

The
Foreign Office . This is how the British name their
外交部. They pronounce it that way to contrast with "the
Home Office", another British government department.

"a disabled person" and "a blind man". (No recordings yet). Both the words "disabled" and "blind"
are spoken with stress to imply the meaning, "not normal".

An "approved
school" is a term used in England. "Approved" is stressed to mean, "not an
everyday school but one that has been especially approved for some purpose".
Similarly, a
comprehensive school is a type of school in Britain, as
opposed to a non-comprehensive school. You can also think of this and "an
approved school" as belonging
to the group:
"a high school",
"a middle school", "a
secondary school" and "a
primary school". These are all really Type 1, even though the
first word is an adjective. The adjectives here all are used to mean a type of school;
the meaning is not to describe a school, as adjectives normally do (even
though the words, "approved", "comprehensive", "high", "middle", "secondary" and
"primary" all do give information that describes the type of school).

a
blind spot (Normally, the person can see everywhere, but
this particular spot, the "blind spot", is not visible to the viewer. This term
is often used when referring to car drivers.)

"in the long run"
(The emphasis is on the word, "long" because we are conscious that it is not,
"in the short term". It is possible to say, as the opposite of,
"in the long run", "in the short run". But most English speakers
say, "in the short term" because "short run" has another meaning.)

"jump into the deep
end" and, "be thrown into the deep end" (This originally
referred to a swimming pool but it has evolved to mean, "the most difficult part
of something". "Go off (at) the deep end" means to suddenly erupt
into unreasonable anger, i.e., to react in an extreme way.

---------------------------------

This aspect of word stress is a little difficult
for learners of English. The best way to learn this is: a) understand the
explanations that are written on this page, b) mimic and learn the recorded
examples on this page and, c) mimic as many recordings as you can of native
English speakers speaking naturally. This aspect of pronunciation is one of the
best examples of the fact that you can't fully learn to speak
English by just reading books.

We have just seen how the Type 2 stress pattern,
(for adjective + noun) is easily changed in order to express contrast.
Types 1 and 4 can also be changed in order to express contrast but it is not so
common because we need to have a suitable, similar word combination to contrast
with.

For example, a "flight
bag" is a type of bag and is Type 1. A "flight ticket" is a type of
ticket and is also Type 1. For Type 1 word combinations, it is better to think
of these as belonging to the group that is specified by the second word. So,
here we have a type of bag and a type of ticket, not two "flight things". But,
since both of these compound nouns begins with the word, "flight",
they are suitable for contrasting, with the word
stress changed to the second word in order to differentiate them.

For example:
"No, I didn't lose my flight ticket; I just lost my flight
bag." "Bag" and "ticket" are in contrast. However, you can't make the same contrast if you want to use the
compound noun, "airline ticket" instead of "flight ticket". In this case, you
would say the words as they are normally said:
"No, I didn't lose my
airline ticket; I just lost my flight bag."

Type 4 stress pattern is also changed when
expressing contrast. For example, an "apple
pie" and a "custard pie"
are both Type 4a. Here's an example of changing the stress pattern when
contrasting: "Did you buy an apple pie?" --> "No, I bought a custard pie."

Here's an example of two Type 4b compound nouns
used in contrast to each other. "Company manager" and "hotel manager" are both Type 4b, with stress on the second word. But
in the following example,
the second person speaking changes the stress pattern for contrast.

Person 1:
"My husband is a company
manager."

Person 2:
"What a co-incidence! My
husband is a hotel manager." The word, "hotel"
is stressed in order to show contrast with the word, "company".

Only a few examples of compound adjectives are on this website at the
moment. More will added in the future. So far, this study on this website
is concentrating on word combinations that represent a noun that is composed of
more than one word.

There are some exceptions to the 'rules' stated above. Sometimes either
American English or British English follows the 'rules' while the other does
not.

Exception 1: Table Tennis

table tennis
(U.S.)
table tennis (Br. - I call this, "the British pronunciation".) I prefer the American pronunciation of
this, which means, "a kind of tennis", along with "lawn tennis"
and I think this pronunciation is becoming more common in England, as
this recording at the MacMillan dictionary website shows.

The British pronunciation in the recording is Type 4b, similar to
world peace( = "peace of the world")
or
family ties(= "the ties of the family") and the
city centre. However, although there is a logical and a
frequent connection of the idea of "peace" with the word "world", the idea
of "ties" with the word, "family", and the idea of "centre" with the word,
"city", I don't think "tennis" is frequently and commonly associated with the
word, "table".

The British pronunciation of "lawn
tennis" is similar to
table tennis (Br.) and, to me, implies that "lawn tennis" fits
into a set of things called "lawn things". I prefer to think of "lawn tennis" as
a kind of tennis and to stress the word, "lawn".

The British stress pattern probably comes from the fact that there are other
"lawn" sports such as, "lawn bowling", (also called "lawn
bowls") which is usually spoken with the stress on the word, "bowling".
This is the Type 4b stress pattern.